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I respect Herzog and like how he goes in strange directions, but with that sometimes he wanders down the wrong path, or maybe wrong isn't the word. He sometimes wanders down a boring path. Somehow Herzog got his hands on some space footage and some antarctic underwater footage and thought he could compose that into a sci fi movie.

This is of course a visually distinctive journey and a must for all die hard Herzog fans, but I felt it was a bit too strange and far out. Brad Dourif plays an alien on earth who says he sucks at what he does or something along those lines, which is kind of funny.

Maybe you have to be in the right atmosphere to enjoy this journey, but if you are only going to see one Herzog film, don't make it this one.

When their planet started to die, an alien race set out to evacuate the Andromeda system to other places within the universe that were inhabitable. Several of their ships reached Earth several generations later but by then the founding fathers had died off and left behind a lesser generation. On arrival on Earth things did not go as well as they had planned – attempts to build themselves a capital city to rival Washington DC end with a crumbling, desert collection of ruins. Looking at the journey itself and the problems they encountered, a surviving alien recalls the whole thing.

It would take a real talent to do it but if you were to take all the elements in the plot here you could easily produce an effects-heavy sci-fi epic that stretches over several films or books. So how much talent does it take to do just that using one actor, some expert contributors, underwater footage from under the ice flow and lots of stock footage? I'm not sure of the answer but the second way seems harder because it does deliver the goods in this fascinating film that dances along the line between interesting and pretentious. I found the story worked really well and the overall effect was to produce a sci-fi film as poetry, full of ideas and emotions. It is hard to describe but I found it effortlessly engaging and enjoyed it a great deal.

Of course the delivery was always going to be challenging and I can understand why it has got such a low rating on this very site. It is not a Hollywood sci-fi film, in fact it is not an easy film to put into a box and sell in such a marketplace because it is so unique. The direction is very daring and mostly works because the writing is there to do it. The dialogue is the story and it is very well delivered by Dourif to the point where he is never less than fascinating due to his words but also his convincing delivery of those words. The use of stock footage and locations that are very non-sci-fi are carried by Dourif's story telling but the problems come when he is absent for longer than a few minutes. Extended footage of diving below the ice sheet is interesting but it is the same thing over and over so, without a narrator to move us on and keep us interested, I felt that the film got close to boring. Fortunately this only happens a handful of times. The musical score is again very unusual for sci-fi but it does capture a strange sort of otherworldy sombre air.

Overall then this will probably put most viewers off very quickly. It is as much a piece of poetry as it is a piece of cinema and it is certainly not what you expect from a "sci-fi epic" although that is unquestionably what the story is. At times boring, the film is generally very engaging and interesting and it is well worth checking out to experience it as much as anything else.

This might actually be the most peculiar film Werner Herzog has ever made: a fictional story, told only through the narration of a character, with all but a scant few moments of visuals being nothing more than documentary-style footage of a wide range of people, places, and things. This goes well beyond Herzog's 1992 feature 'Lessons of darkness,' which explored imagery of Kuwaiti oil fields with the presupposition of how it might look to a visiting extraterrestrial. The very concept sounds like something a film student might make as their first high school project. That goes as well for the narration, which is loosely science fiction in nature, yet wide-ranging as it diverts into various topics - a monologue which somewhat feels like how a beat poet might approach genre storytelling. Save for the filmmaker's utmost professionalism and experience, and the involvement of unmistakable Brad Dourif, it wouldn't at all be hard to view 'The wild blue yonder' as being pretty much anything other than a Herzog picture. Yet here we are.

All this is well and good, though there remains the question of the value of the viewing experience. It's a fascinating idea, and maybe a daring one. The footage greet us ranges from interesting to beautiful, to inspiring: useful for the purposes of the feature, the visuals are also such that I would like to see them in an earnest documentary, sans recontextualization, to gain an understanding of what it is we're seeing in the first place. That narrative that is told in so novel a fashion is simple, and simplified compared to what we might get in a more conventional sci-fi flick, yet no less worthy for the fact of it. All this is wonderfully enriched by the fabulous original music of Ernst Reijseger and Mola Sylla, superb and otherworldly and amplifying the latter sense about the presentation. Whatever else is true of 'The wild blue yonder,' there's surely not much else quite like it.

This is almost experimental in nature, and surely will appeal best to only a select audience. It dabbles with the familiar, but in a decidedly unfamiliar way, and for all the ingenuity, I don't think it's unfair to say that by any measure it's a little light on content. Still, whether one is a fan of Herzog or just a cinephile at large, I think this is well worth checking out on its own merits - certainly not for all comers, but for those receptive to all the wide possibilities of what movies to offer, it's just another part of the splendid tapestry. Don't go out of your way for 'The wild blue yonder,' but this is a fun little trip.

Werner Herzog's science fantasy about a trip to a far off planet. The plot concerns an alien played by Brad Dourif, who has come to this world from Andromeda when his world begins to die. He out lines the story of his time on earth and of our trip to his far off world. Consisting of new footage by Herzog the film also contains a great deal of footage from a space shuttle mission as well as images from under the Antarctic ice. Its a strangely hypnotic film thats often a head trip as we are forced to look at our own world as something, somewhere than what it is. This is a heady mix of facts and fictions mixed with beautiful images set to some intriguing vocal and cello music (think Tibetan throat songs) . For much of the film the mix works as we begin to see believe that the aliens are here and that we sent a mission that went there. The problem with the film is that there are long passages, particularly with the space shuttle stuff where its nothing but image and singing. It would be fine if there was a change of image but Herzog holds the images, say of an astronaut jogging, much too long. I don't why he felt the need to use all of the footage that was shot of some subjects. It will drive you to the point of slumber. Which isn't to say the film is bad. Its not. the dialog, well monologue is very witty and contains some great quotes. It also presents a few facts, about distance and our ability to bridge it that is wickedly disheartening for people looking to jump in a ship one day and travel far away, while at the same time opening you up to the possibility of actually doing it. Ultimately this is a movie that you will think about for a long time after you see it.

I'm a pretty big Werner Herzog fan. I loved Grizzly Man. I loved Aguirre, Wrath of God, especially Herzog's commentary track. His performance in Incident at Loch Ness was amazing. I enjoyed The Burden of Dreams slightly more than Fitzcarraldo or My Best Fiend but I appreciate the whole narrative as documentary idea and vice versa. In this film, I was happy to see Brad Dourif stick his mug in the camera as a crazy alien. I went to see this at a Portland Werner Herzog mini-festival because I read that although the work was made for the BBC, the photography had to be appreciated on the big screen. I couldn't disagree more. The photography, home movies of people floating around in a space capsule or diving in a poorly lit sea looked like outtakes from any decent nature documentary. If accompanied by the experiences of the participants, it still could have been a decent show. If reconfigured as a clever twist on the imagery, a la Woody Allen's What's Up Tiger Lily? it might have held my interest. Unfortunately, the poor photography was, for the most part, accompanied by music. I have no problem with this. I enjoyed Koyaanisqatsi and Man With a Movie Camera. But here, the images are boring and the music (pseudo-throat singing and scratchy amateurish cello ambiance) is grating. As an example of the poor quality of the imposed story, here's an example. The explanation of divers swimming toward the light of a whole cut in an ice cap are explained as astronauts transporting themselves by disintegrating themselves into pure light and reconfiguring at the other end. It's an amazing visual effect, I suppose for someone who has never noticed that looking through water in a glass distorts an image. Then again, anyone under three would be bored to tears by the images of a scientist nodding off during an interview. This experience is probably closest to something like Andy Warhol's Sleep, which was a long, unbroken shot of someone sleeping for a guy sleeping for five hours. I could have take a nap during that, though. The music in this film kept jarring me awake. I rarely post negative comments. Why bother? But if I can convince one Herzog fan to watch this on DVD, where he can turn it off, instead of sitting through it in a theater, I will have provided a useful public service.

I caught this film on BBC4 while flicking through the channels last night. An hour and twenty minutes later I sat in front of my TV, knowing that I had experienced a work of rare film poetry. The plot (and here's the 'spoiler', not that it would spoil any enjoyment of the film), is that an alien from the Andromeda system (or a seriously confused human),played by Brad Dourif, who landed on Earth after fleeing his frozen world, tells the story of a group of Earth astronauts who travel to the frozen Andromedan planet and then come back to Earth. Brad Dourif tells his story from an abandoned city, full of half-finished buildings and broken trailers, that was to have been the mighty capital of Andromedans on Earth. The story is illustrated by footage of NASA missions, diving expeditions, physics lectures, and ancient news reels. What really makes it, however, is the soundtrack. I don't know what the music is, but it sounded like some version Mongolian yodelling. Juxtaposed with the images and storyline, the whole thing becomes strangely moving. Please don't expect a conventional Hollywood storyline- there a many long, apparently monotonous sequences, perhaps reminiscent of Space Odyssey. Just relax into it. If you have any depth, you will not be disappointed.

First, I love Werner Herzog. I am a very big fan of his and I also respect people taking chances and trying new ideas. But this smacks of someone barely even trying. It's just some ridiculous sci fi story thrown together and narrated while showing stock footage of deep sea diving and space station video. The story is so inconsistent to begin with and boring. "We came from Alpha Centauri and built a mall and no one shopped there." What the heck is that supposed to mean, and who cares? Half of the movie is stock footage of the space station and we are supposed to imagine these are astronauts traveling to a distant star that, as it was just explained to us, would take hundreds of generations to complete. I would say this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but even though I popped in a DVD and sat there for 90 minutes, I technically wouldn't even call it a movie. It also isn't a documentary. It is one of a kind, a very very bad kind.

We are by now quite commonly aware of the various statistics illustrating our remoteness from our nearest supposedly 'habitable' planet, that even Alpha Centauri, a very close neighbour, is some 3 light years off and many hundreds of years travelling at conventional means (that would be our fastest rocket propulsion in a vacuum, and a slingshot trajectory). But there was something about Herzog's description of this fact, spoken directly into the camera by a suitably intense Brad Dourif (though this is Brad's forte), that hit home, that filled me with that sense of wonder, that was also also tinged with dread. Perhaps it was the context, Herzog's narrative about alien travellers having many generations ago escaped their distant and dying world to eventually arrive here on Earth, attempt to colonise and then witness generations later, humanity's own attempts to escape the dying Earth and seek out a barely habitable world across space.

There is a primary loneliness in this concept, especially so in the human's arrival at that very same long-abandoned world, deciding to cope as best as they can with the liquid-helium atmosphere. Nothing like earth but then nothing else like Earth was anywhere discovered.

This feast of philosophical posers is coloured with actual Nasa on-board shuttle footage, that, although initially falls short of complementing the science-fantasies of the narration, does eventually blend successfully. And by the time this is settled the viewer is already drawn in. The thoughts and visions being presented us, the zero-g astronauts and ice-divers floating to the semi-atonal wailing in Ernst Reijseger's soundtrack, have put us in a place of submission and meditation rare for cinema. It would be interesting to know whether Herzog created this story line around the Nasa footage or the inverse. For by the end of the film, everything is convincing.

A very unusual cine-poem that will stand up to repeat viewing. For i know each time i will come away with the feeling i have been infused with some ethereal wisdom.

g

I am a huge fan of Werner Herzog. I think he is truly an amazing and inspirational filmmaker and I will never hesitate to watch one of his movies. This one intrigued me because it was so different from his other features. Sadly it was a bit of a let down, but not completely. I wouldn't recommend this film to many people (very few actually). It's so out there and different that I can't put my finger on exactly what it is. It's part documentary, part science fiction, and part Discovery Channel. Most of the footage is from NASA space stations or under the ice in Antarctica. There was strange music and very little narrating. It was a bit much and could have been cut down to increase the effect of the footage. I liked some of the ideas tossed out there like aliens who were not very intelligent (although they managed to travel to Earth millions of light-years away). The film was a bit confused as to where it wanted to go and what it wanted to be. A solid effort by Herzog and very original. I was interested throughout and even now I want to go back and take a peak. Maybe someday, but not right now.

...but by the end of it, I was left with the feeling that there was a slice of my life I'll never get back. This is an easy film to summarize, though. Good, sometimes arresting, imagery strung on a thin but interesting plot, all accompanied by the world's most annoying sound track. The pacing is glacial. The scenes play out way too long - which is emphasized by the droning atonal background "music".

I can appreciate the parable of being good stewards of our home planet. I can appreciate the wry wit with which the subject of aliens is treated. What's inexcusable, though, are the gross technical gaffes laying around like mines in a film which otherwise goes out of its way to establish its technical credentials.

I can understand and appreciate what Herzog was trying to accomplish with this film. Still, a misfire is a misfire...

Everything in The Wild Blue Yonder is intentional.

The use of stock footage from NASA in place of special effects and the inescapable tedium of this footage; the implausible concepts from physics which are neither explained nor clearly connected to the vaguely coherent "plot"; the fact that alien space traveler Brad Dourif and his alleged (but never seen) extraterrestrial colleagues do not appear to be in any way different from somewhat neurotic Americans with bad business sense; The stark beauty of the underwater scenes and the immediate disruption of this beauty by the arrival of humanity; the accuracy of the alien narrators comments regarding the impossibility of intergalactic travel and the continuity problems which stem from this jarring set of facts.

I am not sure Herzog planned all of this, but I do believe that once he has identified the film he is making, he's pretty meticulous and consistent about putting it together.

This film has two texts:

1 the plot - which is a bit of silliness about aliens coming to earth because their planet is undergoing environmental catastrophes and earthlings going to their planet for the same reason. This story is so absurd that it is difficult to understand why some reviewers seem to believe it is really most of what is going on in the film.

2. the joke - which is the meta-text, and a contribution to Herzog's seemingly endless commentary on human nature and human affairs, though definitely one of his less clear and forceful critiques. The film parodies the Star Trek concept of space travel and the future as a panacea for human problems, and does so on many levels: including patent ridiculousness of the plot; the tedious stock footage which is so painfully unrelated to the narrative; the alien who looks so much like us it is unnerving and who admits, halfway through the film, that he and his fellow aliens "suck".

What Herzog ends up with here is possibly the lowest budget space movie ever shot. Assuming he got his usual fee, Brad Dourif probably challenged the post-production budget for the most costly element of this film. What the more receptive members of his audience get is a film that is strangely difficult to forget, despite the fact that its plot is utterly forgettable.

As a space adventure, Blue Yonder fails utterly and miserably - and that is part of Herzog's point! As a smart sci-fi film - not as challenging or stilted as Tarkovsky's work, but in some ways, as profound - it succeeds, but does not really excel.

Recommended for fans of philosophical sci fi and fans of Herzog. Not recommended for anybody else.

Looking like a cross between Klaus Kinski and Christopher Lloyd, a disheveled man (Brad Dourif) stands in a junkyard filled with broken buildings peering into the camera. He tells us that he is an alien from the Andromeda system who came to Earth many years ago because his world had become an inhospitable ice field. Now disheartened because his attempts at building a complex with government buildings and shopping malls on Earth has failed, he tells us that "aliens suck", strange language indeed for an Andromedan. In an ironic twist, mankind undertakes a space mission to his home planet to search for a new home for Earthlings after a dangerous microbe is discovered in a captured Roswell UFO.

Made originally for television, Werner Herzog's science fiction fantasy, The Wild Blue Yonder feels like an in-joke that the viewer is not in on. The film mixes NASA footage from a space mission in 1989, cinematography from an exploration under the frozen waters of the Arctic, and mock interviews with scientists and mathematicians Roger Diehl, Ted Sweetser, and Martin Lo that often make them seem like objects of laughter. Separated into ten titled chapters, the film consists of the alien ranting at the camera, astronauts doing chores, eating and brushing their teeth, and explorers swimming under an Andromedan ocean looking for intelligent jellyfish.

All of it is set to an other worldly soundtrack performed by Ernst Reijseger, singer Mola Sylla, and a five-voiced Sardinian choir that weaves a tapestry of radiance but the film's moments of brilliance are mixed with long stretches of flatness. Ultimately, for all its spiritual pretensions, Herzog offers only a rationalist's point of view, emphasizing man's isolation rather than his connectedness and missing in the phrase of Deepak Chopra "the stillness at the heart of creation, where the universe correlates all events".

The only possible reason why anyone would ever watch this god-awful "movie" is because Herzog's name is on it. It's around 1 hour 15 minutes of off-the-shelf NASA stock footage - which anyone can download off the internet - along with exerts from some interviews of half-baked, dreamy-eyed scientist talking about outlandish theories that may or may not be feasible in about 5000 years. And these interviews, I'm sure, are not meant for this production either, but simply lectures from some Discovery Channel science program.

Add to that, an utterly annoying soundtrack of Nazi-era German soprano/opera, and some tribal folk music - all mixed at levels that make you cringe - and you have a recipe for agony.

Then you have the ridiculous narrative, or "story". Now, I like Brad Dourif as much as the next guy. Actually I think he's a great actor, and the total failure of this "movie" is certainly not his fault. But the narrative that he is forced to act out is really far, far beyond silly. I mean, take "Invasion of the body snatchers" times "Independence Day" powered by "The Wizard of Oz", and you'll still have a story that is more believable than this thing!

So to summarize; Take about bunch of stock footage off the internet, edit it together in no particular order, add some exerts of interviews with some NASA eggheads that you found on Discovery, slap on the most annoying music you can find, and then hire an actor to narrate a "space story", which has nothing to do with the images or footage that you are seeing - and then you'll have this movie.

I guess Herzog was running behind on his mortgage and asked himself "what can I come up with before the end of the week?". Well, this is it! You have been warned.

Most of the reviews of this movie on here are negative. I can TOTALLY see where they are coming from, but it seems that everyone else's LEAST favorite parts are what transfixed me. Yes, some of the astronauts-in-space shots went on a bit long, but the music is so beautiful. The opera, tribal music, and string instruments used throughout the film, to me anyway, illustrated the beauty contained in the unknown and unknowable. The shots under the "frozen sky" really DO look like an alien landscape. They are beautifully shot, and bring with them a feeling of both freedom and claustrophobia. And Brad Dourif's voice, his eyes, they make him a more convincing alien that ANY million-dollar sci-fi blockbuster. Just a man kicking dirt at the side of the road, so upset as his (and OUR) failings. If you have PATIENCE, try this movie.

This is a desperately poor, indulgent, cheap, empty, irritating, unwatchable concoction of clips tied together with an infantile plot and dressed up with some ethnic chanting intended to make it seem meaningful and spiritual or something.

It is the laziest piece of movie non-art I've seen in quite some time... maybe ever. Dross, crap, worthless nonsense. I feel awful after watching it. How can people get away with this?

We are required, in this commenting system, to write ten whole lines of text in order for the comment to get accepted. So, we have to find a way of elaborating on that which is without content or substance or quality. This is not easy, how far can you stretch the idea that something is simply crap?

Why should we be required to exert effort in critiquing that which involved NO EFFORT? Not only were there no original scenes filmed besides the narrator, the story had no consistency, plausibility, character, insight, or intelligence of any sort. It was like someone farting in your face and expecting you to think it was life-enhancing.

This movie makes an audience think about the world in which we live. Of course, only if an audience is in a mood to think of such.

A similar effect can be found in "The Wrath of God". In both cases, anyway, a new world is being presented. The characters and NASA clips are only "extras".

They are there to make some contributions as entertainment sources, so that some people may watch it. It's like a small town circus (or a freak show) that we see in "Kaspar Hauser" movie to attract audiences. Funny clowns are employed in all these presentations. But, we will very soon forget about all these characters.

All combined together, the grand total effect is impressive. It is Herzog's characteristic effect. Individual ingredients suck and are very crude, vulgar, and amateurish.

All combined together, it is a forceful message. Although, yet, we don't know exactly what message there is to comprehend.

Ranging from boring to excruciating, this film combines an hour of stock footage, a bizarre & often unpleasant soundtrack, grating narration, overacting by the only actor, and an uncompelling and often incomprehensible story to create a near utter waste of an hour and a quarter.

Brad Dourif is unlikeable in the only significant role, and his enunciation during the narration is often strange and unpleasant. Sadly, this narration is the only respite the viewer receives from otherwise interminable scenes of stock footage of astronauts and scuba divers floating about. I suppose these sequences are meant to be profound; I found them exceptionally tedious. They are not helped by the accompanying music. I also failed to suspend my disbelief when, presented with footage of Arctic divers, I was told that this was astronauts exploring a planet with a "sky made of ice" above a liquid hydrogen environment.

Points are for a mildly intriguing initial ten minutes and a somewhat interesting scientific discussion of wormhole travel.

3/10

I just saw this film at the L.A. Film Fest and I was intrigued by the idea. Brad Dourif was the perfect choice for the alien role and even though I do not believe this film will be embraced by mainstream American film goers, I think this is one of the most beautifully photographed films in some time, which of course is a tribute to a master filmmaker like Werner Herzog. Herzog is definitely one of the most talented directors in the world who hasn't really found a niche in America, which is a real shame. This is a great film which I don't think any other filmmaker could have made so beautiful, comical, and overall enjoyable.

I have to admit that my family and I only made it through about 25 minutes before we decided to try and salvage the rest of the evening (and turned it off). The photography was not remarkable by any stretch of the imagination (at least in the first 25 minutes). We are very open minded about movies and this one was a real stinker. It was kookie...but not in a good way....kind of in a pathetic way... like trying to have a conversation with a paranoid schizophrenic. I really wish I had something positive to say but I don't. I feel like warning people to not waste their time. It is possible that the movie did a complete turnaround later (after 25 minutes). I haven't actually turned a movie off like this for many years.

What makes Herzog mind numbingly talented is his eye for absolute heart stopping beauty and shocking humor all in a shot. For this I never tire of watching Herzog's films over and over again.

In Into the Wild Blue Yonder he again encompasses the genius and silliness of humankind and nature. He allows your eyes to wander long all around in his shots, gracefully to take their time in childlike wonder. It's a slow food movie. He trusts that you have a sense to enjoy all the irony, possible melancholy, waltz- like fluid motion, transfixing colors, the plain goofiness without feeling you must be a "film snob. A delight for the eyes to be sure!

Choosing Brad Dourif for his punctuated passionate alien was perfect! As an actor he is always fascinating to behold. In "Into the wild... " as much so as the underwater scenery.

Herzog will always be my favorite director for his open invitation to every viewer to take what they might from his films.